Along for the ride (190) In the book along for the ride it's about the main character Auden who goes to visit her dad living in a small beach town. I have read many Sarah dessen books including this one and one thing I noticed is that she references not only this town in almost all of her other books but some of the characters from her other books as well. She has almost all the characters living in the same neighbourhood. A lot of her books also have the idea of the girl who's parents have split up or who are not together and she's just trying to find her self. So in a way I think all of Sarah dessesns books intertwine.

text to self. In the book tweak the main character Nic has just got of his bendor and returned home back to l.a. He is now trying to get his life back on track and try to apoloize to the people he's let down and trying to get back to the way things were. He powered his way back and now his life is looking pretty good. But honestly while reading the whole time I couldnt help but think to myself that I wouldn't be able to do what he did. Coming back from all that and trying to get your life back together would be so hard I just dont think i'd be able to handle it.

Communism; the upsides, downsides and overall affect it had on Russian society are very prevalent in this book. This reminded me of our neighbors in the east: China. The Chinese government is becoming a growing world-power everyday and it shows. They have one of the largest armies, biggest populations, and one of the greatest economies in the world today. While reading this book, I was imagining what it would be like if Russia won the cold war, would communism spread? would we all be united under the flag of the soviets? would democracy be crushed under the big red foot? Guess we could find out soon enough...

Room (255) A text to world connection I found while reading was when Jack and his mom escaped from the shed they were trapped in. After being trapped and abused for years, Jack and his mom were able to escape and allow Jack to see the world for the first time. In the real world, there are many cases of women being kidnapped and abused for years. As Jack's mom points out at a press conference later on, she's not the first person to have this happen to her and she's not the last. Cases like Jack and his mom's happen all the time and some victims don't come out as lucky. However, those who do have the difficult task of re-adjusting to their life from before being locked away, just like Jack and his mom.

Specials (350)Now that Tally and Shay are specials, they have a whole new way of seeing things, particularly, seeing other people. They are constantly judging other people, calling them “randoms” and “bubbleheads” because they believe they are better than them. This is something I have struggled with, and I’m trying to not judge other people or look down on them. If we’re being honest here, who hasn’t struggled with this? It’s human nature. In the book, Tally thinks this way because she can see every imperfection of everyone; she can even see their emotions and smell their fears. But another reason she thinks this way is because she is trying to convince herself she is special. She has to look down on people to be secure in herself. Who hasn’t done this before? You see a smoker going outside and think to yourself, “I better than them, they’re wasting their life, smoking.” And after that thought, you feel better about yourself, you have a sense of pride. I can relate to how Tally thinks of uglies and pretties, unfortunately.

Perks of Being a Wallflower (176) A text to world connection I found while reading was when Brads father caught Brad and Patrick together. I hear of children not being accepted by their parents because of their sexuality. In the book Brad was beaten by his father because of this. This made me think, I know people go through this, but I just can’t imagine not being accepted by your parents because of the way you are. In many cultures its unacceptable to be involved with the same sex. Like Brad many people hide who they truly are, their scared of what people will think or say about them.

Along for the ride (190) In along for the ride one of the themes that is in the book is a divorce. It talks about how Auden's parents are divorced and her father remarried and had another child. I think divorce is more common in today's society then before. I looked up how many families are actually divorced. 41 percent of first marriages get divorced. That's almost half. I think this book shows how divorce can affect children. Another thing I learned is that studies show that children of divorce have more academic and behavioural problems. In most of Sarah dessen's books the main character has divorced parents. I think it may be trying to relate to the amount of people in the world that are actually divorced.

Arina really is a tragic character. She was a slave to rich Other who forcibly converted her to the dark side when she was 12, she was then violated and beaten by him, she finally defeated him in a duel and escaped, she was hunted by both the Night and Day watch, the was forced to do both The Night and Day watches dirty work, she then got roped into a conspiracy to forcibly convert everyone in Russia to communism, and now she being forced back into hiding by fleeing her home in Moscow and leaving for frigidly cold Siberia. I feel really bad for her! Poor girl never got a break in life. I hope we can see what happened to her at the end of the book. She reminds me of a beaten house-wife, never getting the love and attention she deserves and being forced to do unpleasant things to get by.

Perks of Being a Wallflower (176) In Perks of Being a Charlie (the main character) has a teacher by the name of Bill. Bill is Charlie’s AP English teacher and assigns a book and essay for Charlie to do every few weeks. This reminds me of some teachers I’ve had in the past. You know, those ones who seem to assign a huge project to you every week. Charlie doesn’t seem to mind all these essays though, if I were in his shoes I would HATE it. I would be ridiculously behind in that class, its crazy how Charlie could keep up with all of that work.

I recently had watch the movie version of this right before I started reading the book, big mistake. I find myself comparing the two while reading and finding many similarities, but also many difference. One similarity I found was how well the actors captured their characters, the movie perfectly portrays many scenes because of the chose of emotion an actor was able to convey due to the in depth development of characters in the book. A difference that I have noticed is that the plot was a bit jumbled when put into the movie. Events happen in different orders or not at all, because of this I think I prefer the book better. The author strategically used many events not featured to help you understand the character of Charlie better, without them in the movie I never really understood why Charlie was troubled or what made him so different from other people. The book has provided me with much more incite into the life of Charlie that no movie can ever portray.

In my story when Percy first arrives at the camp he sees all the other campers in their matching t-shirts, playing volleyball and running around together. This reminds me of when I went to summer camp and saw almost the exact same thing. I arrived at the camp and meet with a bunch of other kids who were all wearing the same green shirt and hanging out. Although it wasn’t exactly the same experience because Percy didn’t choose to go to camp, he was forced to. I can still relate to it.

Room (255)A text to self connection I found was between the characteristics of Jack and my 5 year old cousin. When I think of Jack, I relate him to my cousin who is the same age. When Jack gets to the clinic after escaping from the shed, they try to take him outside. When he goes outside he is scared and wants to go back inside right away. This relates back to my cousin because he gets scared really easily, for example, he hates Halloween. When he went trick-or-treating he went to 3 houses and then wanted to go back home, which could be compared to Jack and going outside. Jack and my cousin also share the characteristic of being shy. When Jack is at the clinic he is overwhelmed by the amount of new people he meets and hides behind his mom I see the same characteristic in my cousin when he sees people for the first time.

text to self. the main character Nic goes on at least a 2 hour bike ride every day to clear his mind. He says that unless he goes on a ride and exercises that his mind is frantic for the rest of the day.I can sort of relate to that. Like when I'm feeling really stressed out, i can just play sports and while playing I dont think of anything outside of that. Just for that hour nothing nothing really matters except for what im doing at that moment.

In this book, Tally and Shay come upon a city called Diego. In Diego, they have a New System, which allows the citizens to choose whether they want the operation or not, and if they do, it doesn’t come with the brain lesions. Most people choose the operation, but only because they get to choose exactly how they want to look. They can have extremely fair skin with bright orange hair, or very dark skin with overly dramatic muscles. Everyone looks the way they want to. They can even put snake skins on their pinkies. They all have a different, crazy look about them, which reminded me of the Capitol in the Hungers Games. In the Hunger Games, people in the Capitol dress crazily and even get strange surgeries to give themselves third eyes or make themselves 10 feet tall. They can make their look exactly how they want it, and even though it may be bizarre, it’s what they want. This whole series has reminded me of the Hunger Games.

The Fault in Our Stars (239)The text to self-connection that I make with this book is the emotions I feel along with Hazel. It’s not like I have dealt with something as huge and life threatening as cancer, but I do feel empathy for her and the random strenuous situations she is put in when either her or one of her friends has some tragedy strike. I also feel strongly about certain books like Hazel does after reading An Imperial Affliction for the billionth time. I always start thinking about what life would be like for the characters in novels. No matter how much I read a book and no matter how much my mind is soothed by the ending, I always wonder about any and all big and little things in them. I can’t exactly imagine the pent up frustration of a book that stops mid-sentence as for Hazel, but my mind still wonders even after closures are met. I admire Hazel’s determination to get the answers she wants out of the author, Peter Van Houten despite not getting them in the end.

The Fault in Our Stars (239)The main character in the Fault in Our Stars, Hazel Grace Lancaster reminds me a lot of Alaska Young in John Green’s other book, Looking for Alaska. Both girls are strong headed and aren’t afraid of sharing their thoughts. Hazel makes her statements about thoughts that seem to centre on the book she’s always worrying she’ll never find the end to, while Alaska gives speeches about anything, especially if it’s something to do with the patriarchal system. Even though Hazel is fighting to live and Alaska was possibly fighting herself to die or not, somehow their personalities are the same with Hazel being on the calmer, less drunken side. Also, both Hazel and Alaska share a passion for books which I find to be endearing for characters and real people alike since both show such passion for/have deep thoughts about the books they read. Though Alaska Young didn’t often share her deep thoughts on her books, she was passionate about them like when her room was flooded and some of her small library was soaked. Hazel showed her passion when she flew all the way to Amsterdam to get her answers to the ending of her book. Said a characteristic of each character gives me links to why they are both similar and are some of my favourite characters.

The book I’m reading is about Greek gods, and in the story they are talking about how people have slowly stopped believing in them. This could relate to any religion, nobody believes in the same thing; in fact many people don’t believe in anything. This is a world connection because religion is everywhere and yet in many ways it is slowly dying out. As said in the book, very few people believe in Greek or Roman gods anymore. That is just one example of a religion or belief that has died out; who knows how many other have or will in the future.

Water For Elephants (215)A text to world connection I found while reading was when August, one of the main characters displayed aggression towards the elephant Rosie. While reading this part in the book it got me thinking about how there may be many situations related to this one that occur out in the real world. I honestly didn't want to search animal cruelty within circuses because reading about it puts me in a depressed mood, but I did look it up. I came across a website (last chance for animals) that talked about training and how elephants are beaten until they give in. How the animals in circuses are unhealthy and depressed. August, the terrible man in the novel abuses the poor elephant until she gives in. It's all for the crowd he says. the novel describes how the animals live behind bars at all times and have to live without teeth. The website states exactly the same thing. Teeth are knocked out to prevent biting and cages are used for housing and traveling. While reading the book and the website I just couldn't believe how humans could be this cruel. Both describe how people are against circuses but no one is doing anything.Danielle Robak

BZRK (226)In my book one of the main characters Sadie is the daughter of a millionaire who was recently killed along with her brother in a plane crash, and the day it happened she saw all of it because the plane crashed into the stadium she was at, I couldn't be able to do what shes doing in the book with BZRK because I would just break down, shes also the only one left in her family because her mother died when she was little. Just relating to the fact that I wouldn't be strong enough to do that.

My Sister’s Keeper (438) In my book, Anna’s sister is dying of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL). As the book goes on, there are many different types of terminology and effects that are mentioned. Before reading this, I haven’t heard of APL before, and I certainly didn’t know any of the terminology. I wondered if it’s all true, if the author did all of her research or if she was just making it all up. So I looked it up, and APL is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, which makes sense to the story because Anna is constantly donating her bone marrow and lymphocytes to Kate throughout her entire life. In APL, there is an abnormal accumulation of immature granulocytes called promyelocytes. I have heard these words many times in this book. A treatment for APL is ATRA (All-Trans Retinoic Acid), which Kate has already tried. She also goes into remission and relapses a lot, which means that her treatments work and then fail. All of the information in the book adds up to the real life disease and facts.

"The Wednesday Letters" (82) - A text to text connection I had while reading this novel was with the characters Malcolm, Rain and Nathan and the little love triangle that is occurring. I made a connection to the book "The Notebook" with the love triangle that also occurs involving Noah, Allie and Lon. These relationships are very similar because like Noah and Allie in "The Notebook", Malcolm and Rain have a past of a very strong and true relationship. As time goes on, life gets in the way of their relationships but the feelings they share for one another are still very apparent. The character Allie from "The Notebook" and the character Rain from "The Wednesday Letters" are very similar in that they both end up pursuing relationships with more successful men and agreeing to marriage because they want to conquer their dreams of buying a house and having kids. You can tell both women are unhappy in their relationships seeing as they keep making up excuses to postpone their weddings or by seeking time away from their fiancés. In both books the women also have to deal with the reacquaintance of their previous lovers which creates tension resulting in a love triangle.

My Sister’s Keeper (438) A text to self connection I found while reading this book is that one of the main characters, Anna, is feeling disconnected and ignored by her family, since everything is about Kate because she’s sick. She feels like the only reason she was conceived was to save her sister from leukemia. Which it was, as she was a designer baby to be a genetic match for Kate. But she feels like her family doesn’t really pay attention to her other than for her sister’s medical purposes. She can even disappear from the dinner table without anyone even noticing. I tend to feel pretty ignored by my family as well, but it’s usually only around football season. I don’t have a dying sister, but I have a brother who plays football and my dad who’s his coach. From around July to October, my family lives, breathes, and talks football 24/7. They all watch it and love it. My brother plays it. My dad coaches it. It’s the way my family bonds. Except for me; I absolutely hate football. And because of that, I don’t connect to my family the way I should be able to. I can’t join in on my family’s conversations because they are always talking about it. I don’t know anything about football, nor do I care to learn. There was one day where I was talking to my mom and she stopped listening to me so she could join in on my brother and my dad’s conversation about football. It upsets me, but just like Anna, there’s nothing I can do, because there are bigger things to deal with than my problems.

@CaitlinGraham I agree ! I found this to be the case when I read a few of Sarah Dessens books as well. I'm not sure if she's done this on purpose or that's just the way she makes all of her characters.

The best of me (268)A big part of this book is mourning over death. In the first few chapters of the book it talks about how sad Tuck is about the death of his wife Clara and how much he misses her. Then after Tuck passes away it talks about how Dawson and Amanda are feeling. I think this is a good text to world connection because lots of people have to deal with the loss of a loved one and I think the feelings of the characters in the book were described very well.

@carlybretecher: Yes, I have totally felt this way as well, it does make you feel good when you compare yourself to others and believe that you're better, but it's dangerous to only feel good about yourself when others are worse off. This is something I have also struggled with as I would much like to not compare myself to others, whether I am better or worse off.

Text to self ? A character in the book I know has a family but in book 1 family died in it but in book 2 she missed her mom and dad because she has bad dreams she sleeping and for me I we'll be upset I lost my family.That she in a bad poison I would be in the same way as she. She gets up people pick on her so she yells at them to stop and I we'll do the same way and it's not cool. By Cody calcutt

skarsnik page 122 1/2text to self the creature that the main character has to listen to talks about how when he was a "runt" he was bullied beaten and disliked by all the larger creatures and this reminds me of myself and how ever since grade 1 I was bullied by larger people so that is my text to self connection.

Text to self Connection.Go Ask Alice (103) - I really find myself relating to the main character, we seem to have really similar lifestyles and have made an equal amount of poor choices. Although my life has not spun out of control to the point of drug addiction I can see why she did some of the things she has. The narrator in this novel has found herself in many situations where she has been isolated and alone, along with moving around a lot I find myself too often feeling like this. I really don't mind being alone, I feel lucky being as independent as I am but many times when out in a social situation or even just out with friends leads to poor choices based on a longing to fit it. I find relating to this book so well has helped me realize some of my own feelings and even have a new perspective on things i thought would never change to me, in a way it's like rediscovering things about myself. The narrator in this story deals with a lot of regret which comes along with any decision that doesn't turn out the way you want and I think personally or even with any person that's a feeling that you need to learn how to deal with in a healthy and proper way compared to being self destructive or turning to drugs. Although i may have not made the best choices for myself there is always time to grow and learn as a person and I think that's what the character in this novel is trying to do. By reflecting on past decisions it shows that they're really trying to move on and learn from the things they've done wrong... It's only a mistake if you don't learn from it.

Skarsnik page 122 1/2The book isn't like any other kinds of books I have read because the books I read are of the future and this is about the past so I'm trying to transition over to old times with musket rifles and bows.

Kiss (done) Text to self: In Ted Dekker’s book, Kiss, Shauna tries to figure out what happened to her. She woke up after 6 weeks of being in a coma and is told things about herself that she would never imagine doing. All throughout the book, Shauna does all kinds of crazy things in order to find out the truth. I feel a connection with her, not because I would have gone to crazy measures in order to find out the truth, but because I probably would have been too scared to do the things that she did. Shauna did things that involved everything from pretending to be in love with a guy that claimed to be her boyfriend to stealing evidence in a murder case to driving for 6 hours to meet up with a photographer that had gone into hiding. I wouldn’t have enjoyed hearing the things that people had claimed were true of me, I probably would have just gone along with everything and felt sorry for myself.

The city of bones (157) Text to world connection- in the book clary learns of an uprising that happened before her birth. It was because a small group call edit he clave wanted to stop the peace negotiations between the clave and the downworlders. The circle wanted to eradicate the shadow world of all downworlders. This reminded me of when the KKK were at large in the southern USA with their goal of a white supremacist society. They were very discriminatory against people of colour or of other religions and that's how I view the circle in the city of bones. They have very slanted views and only see the world one way. These groups are some of the very reasons our society has been so twisted and yet they are also the reason ewe can look back and say the past shouldn't always be revisited.

The Notebook (134)In this book it talks a lot about how the love between Allie and Noah is so irresistible that they end up not being able to keep their hands off of each other. A text to world connection I find is this subject about irresistible love that is painted in all scenarios of life. You find it in books, movies, and even songs. I feel that all these things are painting these pictures to try and make people think that every person’s “Love Story” has to be like this or it is not true love. I believe that some people get this picture of “true lovers never fight, and always want to be with each other, and never want to leave each other’s sides” is a healthy true relationship. Though I may be the wrong type of person to voice an opinion on this subject as I have never been in a relationship, I have seen many and know that every person’s relationship is different and just because one type of couple shows their love in one way, doesn’t mean another couple that shows love in a different way is wrong and isn’t true. We all have to find someone that is going to accept us for who we are. I believe that once we find that we can discover our own personal love story that may not meet those standards of a typical Hollywood love story, and we need to realize that, that is perfectly acceptable as long as we are happy.

@CaitlinGraham I definitely have seen this in the Sarah Dessen books I've read! While the plots are different in each book, the main characters tend to have similar thought patterns. It makes me wonder if she models her main characters after what she was like as a teenager.

City of bones (157) I find Clary to be quite a lot like katniss everdeen from the hunger games. Both girls are strong willed and stubborn, yet both would die for their cause. They are selfless, compassionate and loving people. Katniss would do anything to protect those she loves but when she is thrust into the games of the Capitol it becomes much bigger than her and her family. The same go for clary , she was content in her own life until her mother is taken from and she would face death rather than not have her mother in her life, but things elscalate when she learns there is much more to the story than just her and her mother. She then becomes dedicated to the cause of saving the shadow world with the help of Jace, Simon, Isobelle and many others. The toe girls lead a very similar life style both personally and in the path they take to greatness.

@caitlyngraham along for the ride is one of my favourite books by Sara dessen! I completely agree on your angle with how she tries to show how these now ordinary actions like divorce or car accident scan affect youth and how they cope. It's a brilliant play on her part!

@kendrasmith- When I was reading "Perks of Being a Wallflower", I was thinking the exact same thing as you... How does Charlie enjoy all these essays and books that he is assigned every week?! And how does he manage to always do so well? If I was Charlie I would feel so overwhelmed, especially since these essays are just extra work for him to do outside of his regular classes. Written work and reading takes me a while to do and if I had a different assignment every week, I wouldn't be able to keep up on any other work!

The Notebook (134)In this book Allie makes the decision to go and visit Noah who is her first ever love. Once she gets there she realizes how much she still loves him. While on the other hand Noah has never stopped loving Allie. As time goes on the two become very close and end up sleeping together and are unable to keep their hands off of each other. A text to self-connection I found was I would handled everything differently that Allie did. As we know Allie is engaged to Lon, but still goes to New Bern to visit Noah, I believe that is alright. Once her and Noah visit for a while, Allie starts feeling some of the old feelings that she felt when her and Noah spent that summer together. This is what I would have done differently. As soon as she started feelings these new/old feelings, I believe that she should have gone back to her hotel and figured out what she really wanted. Though she is engaged to Lon as she feels it is a safe thing, she doesn’t know what is going to happen with Noah. She could potentially break Lon`s heart if she cheats on him. At the same time she has to think if she stays with Lon, is she going to miserable for the rest of her life? I believe Allie should have thought about these things as what may happen in the book later on, may give her a lot of grief, or potential heart break.

The Kitchen God's Wife (259)An important theme in this book is that of abuse. One of the main characters, Winnie, is in an abusive relationship with her husband, Wen Fu. I saw numerous parallels between her story and the stories of people all around me, whether they're stories I see on the news or the real life stories of people close to me. An important one was that Wen Fu always made sure to keep an element of fear in the picture to make sure that Winnie always did her best to please him, because she was constantly afraid of what he might do if she didn't. That's something fairly common in abusive relationships, from what I know - the abuse can only occur if the abuser has more power than the abused. Another thing that really struck me was when Wen Fu was telling Winnie heartfelt things that she'd never heard from him before, and he started to sing. She hadn't seen this side of him since before they were married. Those moments where one discovers unknown good parts of their loved ones are the kinds of moments that keep people in abusive relationships, because they're reminded of why they fell in love with that person in the first place.

A text to world connection I got when I was reading was that they were talking about Babe Ruth trade for the basically the entire book. I was intrigued on why Boston even made that trade knowing that their team wasn't going to be the same ever again. Boston general manager didn't really know what was going on like they started losing Pennants and he still felt that with all the good players that was overshadowed by Babe Ruth performance they were still going to championship. All in all after a few years without Babe Ruth they started winning pennants and almost won a championship.

The Book Thief (307) Lisel and her family don't have much. They struggle with money and they never really seem to have a lot of food. When Lisel's mother gets fired from her job, Lisel was really upset. She got very mad at the mayor's wife, the one who fired her, and yelled a lot of mean things at her. Of course, I cannot directly relate to her situation but there is nothing worse than receiving bad news when you are already having an awful day. There are certain times when I just want to yell and get angry when I'm stressed or upset. I think that would be terrible to have to go through that. I would probably react the way she did too I were in her shoes so I understand where she is coming from.

The Book Thief (307) I find that this book and the Pretty Little Liar series are similar in a way. Both plots in the book requires hiding a really big secret. In The Book Thief, Lisel and her family are hiding a living, breathing human in their basement and if that ever got uncovered, things could go terribly wrong for them. In the Pretty Little Liars books, they have a stalker whom is tormenting them. They could easily go to the cops but there would be so many consequences that would negatively affect them. Keeping secrets like that would be quite difficult to remain hidden.

@CaitlinGraham It's funny you say this because I have always thought this about her books. I don't know if it's on purpose or not but I find that I don't really it for some reason. I find myself getting confused while reading these books because they are all so similar.

"The Wednesday Letters" (82) - At one point in my novel, the character Malcolm flies back to his home in Virginia after being away for quite some time in Brazil. A text to self connection I made with the character Malcolm was when he flies home for the first time in a while and he notices every little change in his town. It is also shocking for him because of the huge culture difference going from cities full of people, back to his small town filled with farmland and empty spaces. I can relate to Malcolm because I have spent a lot of time away from home for example when I went to Paris for a couple of weeks. Paris was so beautiful with all of the architecture, life and colour it was a complete shocker when I returned to Winnipeg after being away for several days. When Malcolm returned home, he started to notice every little thing that changed in his town, for example new fast food joints that had been remodelled. I find this funny because being from a small town where not much changes very often, I too notice little details like that when I have been away for some time.

The Kitchen God's Wife (259)When Winnie and Hulan are sewing together, they like to make up stories about anything and everything around them to pass the time. This connected to me because making up stories is definitely something that some of my friends & I do, though not for all the same reasons as the characters in the book - while they make up stories partly for fun, the larger reason is that the stories create a space for them to escape to when it feels like their lives are only going downhill. I find that I generally don't use stories as an escape - in my life, it's just something I do with my friends for fun. Another difference I found between the book and my life was that while the stories of Winnie & Hulan often had some kind of moral to them, the stories that my friends and I make up are generally ridiculous little things that have no purpose other than to create laughter.

Allegiant (done) *Spoiler Alert*A text to self connection I had while reading was that throughout this book (and the past 2 in this series) is that many people die around the ones they love and there is nothing they can do about it. In the book there's a suicide, and many murders. And although I can't relate to this 100% it never gets any easier after losing someone. Thank goodness, for me I haven't lost anyone close to me in lots of years, but at the end of this book with the death of Tris, it was as if I knew her and i was devastated. I felt just terrible for Tobias. Which is a feeling I've felt for some of my friends and other family members who have lost someone close to them. But I do understand why Tris did what she did, I would want to protect my brother too, and I wouldn't let him give up his life for me no matter how much he betrayed me. I have to admit, I did cry at the end of the book, but that just shows how much it affected me, and I wasn't happy at all with the way it ended since I love happy endings, but luckily with the epilogue in the back of the book, it gave us closure which is what we sometimes don't get.

Allegiant (done) At first while reading I didn't have this connection, but then I was later thinking about it and I realized that this book is kind of like The Hunger Games. In my book they were put into different towns/places for experiments to try and cure genes (since they saw people either having damaged or pure genes), and they were divided into different factions. This is just like The Hunger Games (I've only seen the movie) because they are also divided into different districts based on different things (Allegiant - based on selflessness, courageous, knowledge, etc. & The Hunger Games - Fishing, Luxury, Grain, etc.) These both have the same idea in a way, and it's interesting to see how the author can transform the idea and go about it in a different way.

@SierraHill I agree with you about how Allie should have dealt with the situation and thought things through, instead of just acting in the moment based on old feelings. It probably could have helped her out a bit and saved her from some stress later on.

Kiss (done) Another Text to Self connection that I had is the issue of trust. All though the book, Shauna’s ability to trust the people around her is challenged. Shauna doesn’t know if she can trust her father, boyfriend, or anyone else in her life except for her now-disabled brother. I feel that I can relate to Shauna because, as a teenage girl, it’s really hard to trust people. At this age, people will tell you that you can trust them, you can tell them your secrets, often telling others what you have told them in confidence. As soon as Shauna starts to piece together the clues about what really happened to her, the people in her life start to act in a suspicious manner around her, but still continue to act “normal”.

@Caitlin Those stats are so crazy! Its really tough to see so many of my friends dealing with the divorce of their parents. I have no idea what it's like and I really couldn't imagine. Maybe the author has experienced that or is close to someone who has had to go through that?

Divergent (Done)The text to self connection I found was comparing Tris' personality to mine. Tris is a very strong individual, she proves to be by choosing a different faction as well as being divergent. This is a text to self as I see qualities in her that I see in myself. Towards the end of the book, I see her take charge to protect Tobias, her family and her faction, even when she gets shot in the shoulder. I think if I was in a situation where my family was in jeopardy, I'd be just as concerned as she was. I also relate to her in the way she handles fear. Tris has been in many frightening situations and she described her pain in such a way that the reader can imagine it happening to them. If I were in her situation, I can see myself acting the same way. Pain is not something I handle well, if I stub my toe I tend to fall over in pain.

Divergent (Done)I noticed right away that this book had many similar qualites to The Hunger Games. The first theme I noticed was when the 16 year old teenagers have to choose a faction to live in. The factions can be compared to the districts in THG. Each faction has a role to play in keeping the peace, each with different beliefs in what you need to achieve to live in peace. Districts each have roles to play, focusing on producing different goods and whatnot. Another relation to THG I noticed was between Tris and Katniss. They are both strong, young female characters that are willing to give up their lives for their family and friends. I bet if Katniss was in this book, she would be divergent just like Tris.

@casey clair I understand your relation to Hazel, I find myself feeling the emotions of characters in books all the time. Hazel is a very relatable character that teenagers can connect to (not necessarily to her cancer, but her humour and wit).

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (78)In Perks, Charlie's teacher asks him to try to participate in life. In the book it sounded kind of funny but I completely understand now being in my last year of high school. Looking back I see how different my last four years would have been if I wasn't involved with the teams or clubs that I had a chance to be in. I know that going forward Charlie will have a lot easier of a time making it through those tough years once he opens himself up to new possibilities, just like I had to do in grade nine. I'm looking forward to seeing how Charlie feels at the end of the year and hope that he learned something from his teachers valuable lesson.

@TarynThompson, although I can not directly related to Go Ask Alice as you have, I always have an appreciation for books that you can really connect yourself to. When you can connect with a character on a deeper emotional level it really opens up yours eyes to things you never really notice about yourself. I think books are always better when you can relate to a character in some way even when they are in much more extreme events.

@AshlynErickson as while as everyone else who commented a about the hunger games. I've only seen a portion of the move (over half) and enjoyed it, seeing your comments made me think about watching the rest of the movie and maybe read the books.

I really like your text to self connection Emily. Not only is everything you said true but I agree with everything you stated. As a teen you aren't sure with what is right and wrong you just go along with what you hear and see. Teens aren't sure who to trust. I believe the people around you are not always who you think they are. Teens are in a pretty tough boat.

An Abundance of Katherines (done)The text to self connection I found while reading An Abundance of Katherines had to do with the character Lindsay Lee Wells. Lots of people can relate to her as she is your typical teenager; blunt, funny, and mad at her parents, but there was one thing she said that I found I could really relate to her personally. When Lindsay and Colin were in the cave, she explained to him that she is never herself. I sometimes feel this way about myself. Personally, I’ve found in my high school career that it is much simpler to go with the flow and act accordingly in certain situations than it is to really say what you are thinking. I believe this is because in this stage of our lives in high school we don’t know the kind of people we are and have yet to figure out our own values. We just resort to acting like the rest. Someday we will know ourselves better, we will act as individuals.

The Catcher in the Rye (19)This book is the story of a 17 year old boy named Holden in the 1950's. Holden is very opinionated, outspoken and sarcastic character. Even 19 pages in you can see that he is very much against his societies values and how they focus more on the "hot shots" and wealthy people and not so much the non-successful people or the "average jo's". I think this is a text to world connection because I believe that though we are not in the twentieth century anymore there is still a high standard that society and media hold people to. It's all about the wealth and the material objects and what you can get and achieve and people who don't fall under these expectations are looked down upon.

I've read that book and watched the movie, it's so terrible to watch! The way they treat these animals is horrible and its even more horrible that this is a text to world connection because that means this is happening in real life. So horrible that people can be so heartless and cruel to innocent animals.

A text to world connection I made was when Hollis’ company was going out of business and yet she decided not to do anything about it. If they only produced what they sold, she would have to lay off a lot of her employees. Hollis didn’t want the residents of Gutshot to be out of jobs so, she decided to keep business to the status quo and not lay anyone off. This reminded me of the world, as it is a contrast to what happens most of the time. When business isn’t going well at factory or any company, lots of people are out of jobs. Hollis is very wealthy to begin with so she doesn’t mind losing some money so that her neighbours can have an income. Even though Hollis is a very giving person, most people in the real world are not as charitable.

Sounds like an interesting story. I don't what I'd do if someone told me I'd done crazy things I don't remember. I can't imagine pretending to be in love with someone! Maybe I'll read this book after I finish the one I have now.

Text to text ? All 3 books I have read are taking place in the city of Chicago. Beatrice lost her mother and dad who got shot and Peter Parker, who's uncle Ben got shot in spiderman. Beatrice and Tobias in the books are in love and in the movie Happy Feet 1 and 2, the 2 penguins named Gloria and Mumble fall love in the movie but they had to trust each other first. Everyone thinks Beatrice in book 2 is a traitor because she was wearing Erudite clothes but in Happy Feet 1, Mumble got banished from his home because he couldn't sing. He just could dance.

- Emily PedreiraFor perks of being a wallflower I completely agree with the "participate in life" quote. I find myself often not wanting to participate in life when it should really be the other way around. At times i feel like i'm sort of wasting my life away but at the end of the day we're still only 17.. Lots of time to grow and "participate in life".

Water For Elephants (215)Text to Self-Connection. While reading this novel I found that I am able to relate to Jacob (the main character).I definitely don’t work in a circus or do any of the jobs Jacob does but I feel the same way he does in the story. This Text to Self-Connection is connected with my Text to World Connection post above. In the novel, Jacob witnesses violent behaviour to the animals given by the manager of the circus. He has no choice but to stand there and watch everything that is happening. He feels helpless and sorry for those animals. I could say I feel the same way. Out there in the world today many animals are experiencing cruel and violent abuse. Many of them are actually circus animals. A website that I read described the way animals are treated while in the circus and that it is still happening. The helplessness Jacob feels is exactly how I feel. While reading those articles I felt helpless and hated that I was able to do anything. Wishing I could go and save all of those poor animals. Jacob wasn’t able to save or do anything about it either. He had no choice but to sit there and hate on everything they were going through. I feel for him and hate knowing animals are going through awful abuse every day.

Go Ask Alice (123) - Drug addiction seems to be a more popular issue now a days than it should be. Many teens find themselves spiraling down the horrid path of drug addiction based on the fact it's the "popular" thing to do. Although that's not always the case its how many start off and don't even realize, The main character in Go Ask Alice finds herself ending up in the world of drugs because she wanted to fit in.. Starting off by taking some LSD at a party it led her to all sorts of other drugs. Some may argue that drug addiction isn't a choice but at the end of the day it started off as a choice, it develops into a disease because you and your body do not know how to stop due to the overuse of whatever drug you are taking, Many teenagers also use the excuse "oh she tried it and she was fine.." or "i've done it once or twice and i'm not addicted", the point is everyone is DIFFERENT and everyone responds differently to different things. You could do certain drugs 100 times and not be "addicted" but you could something ONCE and it could change your life in the long run, so why take the risk at all?

@AmeliaDuncan I think you're right, both Katniss and Clary are very stubborn and are fiercely protective of the ones they love despite the different circumstances but still with a large threat involved.

@Carly BretecherI agree with you, everyone has judged people even thought they try not to. It is apart of human nature. I always try and not to judge people but unfortunatly I do. I agree with you the reason we judge people is that it gives us personally a confidence boost, and unforunatly this is how we make our society.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (47)Text to self: I'm not too far into the book yet, but it mentions music a lot - everything reminds Nick or Norah of a song. This is quite similar to me because certain things make me think of a song or vice verse. For example, whenever I hear Ten Thousand Hours by Macklemore it reminds me of lsdt year's musical because when Kathryn was doing my hair, that song played on repeat. Another example is when I'm driving on King Edward or Route 90, I think of the playlists my ex boyfriend and I used to listen to.. It was a mix of Taylor Swift and Macklemore. We used to drive around those streets a lot and those CDs were often playing in the car. So what I'm saying is music is very powerful and it can be easy to relate a certain song with a person/place/memory just as Nick and Norah do in the novel.

I totally see what you mean! If I were Allie, I would've sat down and talked to my best friend to help sort out my feelings. One should never make big decisions in the moment - it usually ends badly. Especially when it comes to somebody else's feelings.. Sure marrying someone who's "safe" is comforting, but why settle when you could be truly happy with someone else? On the other hand, you shouldn't just go back to someone after you hurt them so badly.. Would it be worth it? What if you just end up hurting them again? Ahhhhh, I feel so conflicted and this isn't even MY situation! I have no idea what I would end up choosing if I were Allie.

But if the movie is anything like the book at all, then I'm glad she chose who she chose.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (47)Text to text: NANIP (acronym because I'm lazy) reminds me of "It's Kind Of A Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini because both books involve 2 teens meeting in unconventional ways; Nick and Norah met in a bar (both are underaged!) & Craig and Noelle met in the psychiatric ward. They both hit it off great with their general interests (N&N with their music and C&N with their mental problems) and start relationships. Both of the guys are hung up on other girls (but they would never admit it), Nick with his ex girlfriend and Craig with his crush, Nia. I think it's cute how both of the relationships are unique, not your typical "ask the girl on a date, buy her flowers, meet her parents, fall in love, get married" relationships - NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT! It just gets boring to read the same love story over and over again, you know?

the perks of being a wallflower (190) While I read perks of being a wallflower I find myself wondering the same things Charlie intends to think of. I’ve noticed that Charlie likes to think beyond everything. For example Charlie said “ After a few minutes it was time for me to leave. I don’t know who decides these things. It just happens” I think he made a really good point by saying who decides these things, because really who does? He definitely always has me thinking while I’m reading. I have my moments when I think about things that really aren’t that important. I like to think beyond and go past ‘whats normal’. I find myself doing this most when I am at dance teaching my 3-12 year old class. I always wonder what they will look/act like when they are older. I don’t question as many things i’ve noticed charlie does but I still do wonder the odd thing.